One Pattern Seven Bloggers - Revisited - The Reveal

Welcome back everyone. Today is an exciting day, as today we are sharing with you our finished Macarons for the 1pattern7bloggers project. We showed you out inspiration and fabric last week, and today, the dress! (Apologies in advance for how picture heavy this post is)

I am really happy with the way my dress turned out. I could have picked an easier lace to work with, but at the time I couldn't find any other laces that I liked (although have seen some since). The lace is quick a thick (and heavy) guipure lace so it was quite tricky to (wo)manhandle the seams into place.

To make the dress the way I wanted to, I had to change up the construction slightly because I'd changed the bodice. I changed the pieces so that the lace for the bodice was all one piece, and then I had the green satin underneath in the style lines of the macaron (although changed slightly, as they were a bit low on me as drafted).

I stitched along the top of the satin underlining and the lining to finish that edge, and then hand basted the satin underlining to the lace (shown above).

After that I stitched up the darts and then treated it just like a normal bodice piece.

The bodice underwent some quite substantial changes to get it to fit. What I ended up doing was actually basically the same as my last 1pattern7bloggers dress and a few dresses since, kind of merging the pattern with my bodice block. I then made up a muslin of the bodice and altered the sweetheart style-lines so that sat in the right spot (ie they covered my bra). This last bit was done with the highly technical technique of drawing on the muslin with a biro while I was wearing it.

The last change I made was to alter the sleeves so that they had a straight hem and I could use the edge of the lace at the sleeve hem, along with using it along the hem of the dress.

I included the skirt as drafted... including the pockets inside one of the pleats, not that you'd know by looking at it...

 

Isn't that just really clever!! It's a sneaky trick I think I'll be using on future projects, that's for sure.

I finished off the hem of the underlining with my new rolled hem foot, isn't it just perfect?? Such a revelation, I can't believe I took so long to get the foot.

I'm still not entirely convinced by the shape of the skirt on me though, I'm not completely sure it's the most flattering silhouette.

Although partly I think that's because I could have nipped the waist in a little more than I did. However that was a deliberate decision not to, as I'm planning on wearing this to Frocktails next weekend, and since we're going out for a delicious dinner I thought a tight waistband would be a rookie mistake!

I finished the seam allowances of the lace and the neckline with black silk organza to try and make the lace that bit neater. It's the first time I've actually used silk organza and I'm very happy with how well it turned out.

And the last construction detail I wanted to share is the hand-picked zip that I added. It's definitely not the best I've ever done. But it's heaps better than a machine stitched zip would have been. It was a bit too tricky for me to try doing a lapped zip with the lace (as I've had less experience with them), so I stuck with a centred zip. It's a little gapey in spots, but it's down the side so it's less visible anyway, right?

I'd like to say thank you to Sarah for taking these photos for me, and wanted to make sure to include this shot of the back of the dress, as she wanted me to share it so you could see the perfectly symmetrical top edge of the underlining...

Anyway, I'm sure you're all just waiting for the announcement of the winners of the massive combined giveaway!

Firstly, another enormous thank you to all the generous sponsors of the giveaway:

 

The winners are:

• Lill wins the  Macaron Pattern thanks to Colette Patterns 
• Josephine wins the Macaron Pattern thanks to Guthrie & Ghani 
• Macinic Macaron Pattern thanks to Stitch 56 
• Elizabeth wins the Pattern of your choice thanks to Sew Squirrel 
• Kathleen S wins the Colette Pattern of your choice thanks to Indie Stitches 
• Joanne wins the Colette Pattern of your choice thanks to The Haby Goddess 
• Amy wins the $20 gift voucher thanks to Fabric Worm 
• Sew Charleston wins the $30 gift voucher thanks to A Fashionable Stitch 

The winners should receive an email from one of the 7 of us in the very near future to organise getting contact details for your prizes.

             

I hope you've enjoyed our revisiting of this project, and remember to head on over to see how the Macarons of the other 6 talented ladies turned out, I know I can't wait to see them:

• Marie from A Stitching Odyssey
• Reana Louise from Reana Louise 
• Kat from Petticoats and Peplums
• Jen from Jennifer Lauren Vintage
• Amy from Sewing Through the Motions 
• Sam from Buckingham Road

One Pattern Seven Bloggers - Revisited - Inspiration

The reception to our revisit of the one pattern seven bloggers idea has been a little overwhelming. Thanks to everyone that stopped by and commented on the post last week. Remember that the giveaway is still open, so head on over to that post and comment before the 31st of August to be in for a chance of winning one of the 8 prizes.

Today I'm going to talk a little about the inspiration for my dress...

As soon as the Macaron pattern was chosen I knew that I wanted to make a lace dress. Working with lace has been on my wish list for a while now, I was just waiting for the right inspiration for it, and I decided that this is it. I would be guilty of a massive omission if I didn't say I was heavily influenced by Liz's gorgeous lace Macaron in deciding that this would be a good project to try lace with. You can see all the details of her dress, pictured below, here.

The last added bonus to choosing to use lace, was that I decided that my Macaron could hopefully become my dress for Frocktails, and I thought lace could make a fantastic cocktail dress.

Liz's Gorgeous Macaron | Source

So, with that in mind I visited a few local stores looking for lace. Originally I was hoping for a nice coloured lace, that I could then put a neutral (probably black) behind. Sadly fabric shopping luck was not with me, and I was really struggling in finding some lace that I liked. Then finally I found this lovely black lace at GJs during a Social Sewing day:

I auditioned quite a few colours for the underlinining, but the sheer number of options was a bit overwhelming for my poor little indecisive self. Thankfully the lovely social sewing ladies were happy to weigh in with opinions on which to choose, and this olive green colour won, almost unanimously.

So that's my inspiration and fabric choices for my dress. Be sure to tune in next Monday to see the finished thing, and check out the blogs of the other ladies to see what their inspiration is:

• Marie from A Stitching Odyssey
• Reana Louise from Reana Louise 
• Kat from Petticoats and Peplums
• Jen from Jennifer Lauren Vintage
• Amy from Sewing Through the Motions 
• Sam from Buckingham Road

One Pattern Seven Bloggers - Revisited (+Giveaway!)

Back in May of 2011 I was lucky enough to be part of a fun little project called One Pattern Seven Bloggers, where myself and 6 other fabulous sewing bloggers all made a dress from the same pattern. I'm very excited to be able to share with you today that we have decided to repeat the project, with the same group of 7 bloggers and a different pattern.

I'm very excited about this project, as in addition to the fact that my last one pattern seven bloggers dress was a massive success and is still in heavy rotation in my wardrobe, it's been great to be working on a project with such inspiring ladies once again.

As a reminder the 6 other talented sewists are:

• Marie from A Stitching Odyssey
• Reana Louise from Reana Louise 
• Kat from Petticoats and Peplums
• Jen from Jennifer Lauren Vintage
• Amy from Sewing Through the Motions 
• Sam from Buckingham Road

Another incredibly exciting thing is that this time around we are able to offer a huge giveaway thanks to a group of amazing sponsors!

 

The Prizes
1 x Macaron Pattern thanks to Colette Patterns 
1 x Macaron Pattern thanks to Guthrie & Ghani 
1 x Macaron Pattern thanks to Stitch 56 
1 x Pattern of your choice thanks to Sew Squirrel 
1 x Colette Pattern of your choice thanks to Indie Stitches 
1 x Colette Pattern of your choice thanks to The Haby Goddess 
1 x $20 gift voucher thanks to Fabric Worm 
1 x $30 gift voucher thanks to A Fashionable Stitch 

To enter, all you need to do is comment on this post before Saturday 31st August with your email address!
Make sure you head on over to all of the other participants blogs for up to 7 chances to win!

Terms & Conditions 

• Prizes will be randomly allocated to each of the 8 winners across all seven blogs. 
• One entry per blog. You can comment on each of the 7 blogs for 7 chances to win (!). 
• The winners will be drawn and contacted by email on the 2nd September 2013.

So, keep an eye out on the blogs of the other ladies over the next day to see their announcement posts, and remember that you can comment once on each blog for up to 7 chances to win one of the giveaway prizes.

Also remember to come back on the 26th of August for Inspiration posts and then on the 2nd of September for the big reveal!

EDIT - the giveaway is now closed. Thanks everyone for entering.

Grey Beignet Skirt

You know when you make things and you can't wait to put them on and you wear them every day and you reluctantly stop wearing them so that you can wash them? Well this skirt was the exact opposite of that!

I made this skirt in January/February of last year (yes, 2012), almost a year and a half ago... The pattern is the Beignet from Colette Patterns, and I made the muslin in January and then made the skirt up in February, and then when I finished it off I just wasn't sold on the skirt. I didn't wear it. I had no great desire to wear it, and it just didn't get worn...

...until Me-Made-May of this year, when I was struggling to find casual me-made winter-suitable clothes and I pulled it out. I still wasn't completely sold on the skirt then, but then I pulled it out a couple of times during June and now it's starting to grow on me.

I made one alteration to the skirt which has improved it hugely, which was to stitch up the side-seam pockets. As soon as I moved at all the pockets would gape, and it was just annoying (see above). I was aware of the gaping the whole time I was wearing the skirt and I don't like to have to think about my clothes once I'm wearing them. A quick stitch up the seam-line later, and a snip-out of the pocket bags and I had nice sleek side-seams and a happier skirt.

Apologies for the skirt being massively creased in these pics, but these pics were quickly snapped by the lovely Sarah after a whole day of Social Sewing (which also explains the stray threads that I missed).

As I mentioned in the post about the muslin of this skirt, I traced a 12 for most of the skirt, tapering into a 10 at the waist, which gave a skirt that fits pretty well. The length is as it comes in the pattern.

I tried out a machine blind-stitched hem for the first time on this skirt (and only time actually). I liked how easy it was, but it didn't turn out all that invisible on this fabric, so I think I'll be careful about where I use it in the future.

The other key thing about this skirt is the sheer number of buttons. It took me a little while to find buttons, but I eventually got these matte dark-grey ones. I stitched the buttons on by machine as well (meaning that there wasn't a stitch of hand sewing in the entire skirt!)

So while it started as a bit of a dud, having worn it a few times now I think this skirt will grow to be part of my working wardrobe.

PS: Did you see my lovely new necklace in these pics? There's a better pic of it here. Isn't it awesome! I bought it from the fabulous and inspiring CurlyPops

Rooibos - now with added trim

Last October I showed you this Roobios dress and expressed my unenthusiasm at the finished thing and that I was considering adding some trim so that the style lines of the dress were more visible. Well, I did that shortly after the post and it transformed the dress!

 

Since then the dress has become a staple of both my summer and autumn wardrobes, and has even received some unsolicitations from strangers when I've been wearing it out and about.

 

However, one thing that has been incredibly disappointing about this dress is that the underlining that I used has shrunk in the wash since I made it, despite having pre-washed it before I made the dress. This means that all the seams (the pocket bags in particular) are all 'crinkly' and the neckline is a bit distorted. It's still wearable but not as good as it was when freshly made.

 

In future projects I want to remember how adding some simple trim transformed this dress. I've not really used much trim before, but I think I need to try incorporating it into more projects. (Also piping! Must try piping!) 

Sorbetto with Granny

Since it's the weekend, I wanted to take a break from the sew-along and share with you what I got up to last weekend with my Gran. Do you remember the fabric I bought for my gran just after Christmas? Well last Sunday we spent the day having a sewing date to sew the fabric together into a Sorbetto Blouse.

It was quite fun introducing my gran to the concept of downloadable pdf patterns, and even more fun spending the day sewing with her.

We used a self bias binding around the arm and neck holes, but turned it around to the outside so it was visible.

Doesn't the top just look fantastic on her! Thanks for a very enjoyable day Granny!

Rooibos - Finished?

This weekend, for what feels like the first time in AAAAGES, but in reality is more like the first time in two weeks, I had the chance to sit down and do some clothes sewing. On Friday evening I got together with some lovely friends for a sewing evening and I made really good progress on my Rooibos dress that I'd cut out at the Social Sewing day.

On Friday evening I managed to get all of the pieces together and the zip in, leaving only finishing the neck and arm holes and the hem, which I did on Sunday morning/lunchtime. I didn't do the facings for the pattern, so I finished the neck and arm holes with bias binding, using Tasia's technique from the Pendrell blouse that I also used on the Portrait Blouse. However, as I had corners on the neckline, I had to add a new skill to my repertoire; bias binding on inside corners. For which I used this very good tutorial on the topic.

I am absolutely thrilled with the fit of this dress, it's the second pattern that I've tried actually doing a FBA on and it worked fantastically (above pic shows FBA in progress). I used the tutorial for the Rooibos FBA on the Colette Patterns blog, starting with the bodice size based off my high bust measurement and adding in about 1". I did however still need to add in some extra fabric at the side seams (when I was making my muslin I used a method very similar to Rachel's "fitting insurance" method) which I was glad I'd done. Once I'd worked out the fit of the bodice pieces, I worked out which midriff pieces to cut based on the  measurement around the bottom of the bodice pieces.

Here's a summary of the fitting changes I made to the dress:

• Added a 1" FBA to size 4 bodice.
• Extended the weird stubby back bodice darts about 3" in length.
• Added 5/8" to the side seam on the front of the bodice.
• Added 3/4" to the side seam on the back of the bodice.
• Added an extra 5/8" length to the bottom of the front bodice (and I probably could have added a smidge more).
• Removed some of the curve in the midriff piece.
• For the back midriff cut size 8, for the front midriff cut size 6.
• For the back skirt cut size 8 at the top, tapering down to size 10 8" below the seamline.
• For the front skirt cut size 6 at the top, tapering down to size 8 8" below the seamline.
• Pinched out about 1cm from back neckline near shoulder blades, tapering to nothing at the arm hole (see below pic for why).
• removed the little collar thingy (as I didn't have a nice contrasting fabric, I will include it next time hopefully).

Having now worn the dress for a while, the the only other thing I think I'd change is to make the front arm holes a little bigger as it digs in a tiny bit at some angles.

The fabric I used is a printed poplin that I bought at Spotlight at the beginning of the year. Even after washing it was still quite stiff so I was worried that it wouldn't really work for a dress, so I underlined the fabric with some white voile from GJs that does have lovely drape, which I think has made just that bit of difference. Hopefully it'll continue to soften up as it's washed too.

I wore the dress last night to dinner and then today to work and it's super comfy and hasn't become too obviously creased. The pockets really are fantastic too! However, as the title of this post suggests, I'm not 100% convinced the dress is finished. I'm not usually one for adding trim (I don't think I've ever added any trim to anything I've made), but the design lines of the dress are lost in the busy print, and I think adding something to highlight them would make the dress more interesting and more flattering.

  

So, while at my pattern making class this evening (more on that soon, I promise!) I bought some relatively simple black trim to try (the flowers are outlined and detailed with black on the fabric so black isn't a stupid choice). I already pinned it onto the dress in the store and think it really improved the look of the dress. So I shall add it on and report back with new pics!

Excluding potential trim additions however, I already love this dress! It's very similar in silhouette to some of my favourite and most worn dresses, and has fantastic pockets! I definitely see some more of these dresses in my future!